1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to electronic displays and, more particularly, to a pressure-sensitive plasmonic reflective display.
2. Description of the Related Art
Reflective displays are an attractive technology because they consume substantially less power than liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic light-emitting device (OLED) displays. A typical LCD used in a laptop or cellular phone requires an internal (backlight) illumination to render a color image. In most operating conditions the internal illumination that is required by these displays is in constant competition with the ambient light of the surrounding environment. Thus, the already available light energy provided by the surroundings is wasted, and the operation of these displays requires additional power to overcome this ambient light. In contrast, reflective display technology makes good use of the ambient light so the display consumes substantially less power.
Touch-panels have becoming ubiquitous in mobile phones and tablet computers, such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad, to name a few examples. Touch recognition is now an essential capability in most display technologies. It would be desirable to enable touch capability for reflective displays, which does not exist today. However, integrating conventional capacitive or resistive touch panels into a reflective display would substantially lower the light reflectance and increase system complexities of a typical reflective display.
It would be advantageous if the display pixels of a reflective technology display could be made touch-sensitive.